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by lhunuial



Category: FFXIV, Final Fantasy XIV, final fantasy 14 - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-20
Updated: 2019-05-20
Packaged: 2020-03-08 17:14:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18899092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lhunuial/pseuds/lhunuial
Summary: Zetsu’to returns home, the border of the Black Shroud with Gyr Abania, and has an Echo triggered vision about the day he lost his family when Garlemald invaded Ala Mhigo.





	Home

Baelsar’s Wall. Gaius van Baelsar’s legacy in Eorzea.

The massive wall separating the Black Shroud from Gyr Abania, keeping the Eorzean Alliance out and the Ala Mhigans in. Although they were not doing a very good job at keeping the Ala Mhigans in, considering the Resistance managed to dig tunnels underneath the wall to smuggle people and supplies in and out.

It was a huge eye sore in his personal opinion and its garrison, Castrum Oriens, was built right onto his former home.

Now they were going to walk straight through it.

Zetsu’to’s heartbeat increased rapidly at the sight in front of him. He blinked several times, ensuring himself that he was really here. The last time he was here he was still a small boy, barely five summers old. Everything looked quite different then.

That was when it hit him: The Echo.

He reached for his head and dropped down to his knees. After all this time he thought he had become quite proficient at handling it when the Echo decided to enlighten him with a vision or a memory.

At first he could not make sense of what he was seeing. They were flashes, images and the emotions that accompanied them.  He did not understand why he was receiving a vision now. Whose memories were they? An Alliance soldier? A Resistance member? There were so many people in the near vicinity of the wall. It could be anyone.

Yet he did not have time to think about it more as he finally figured out what he was looking at. It was that day, the day a group of Ala Mhigan refugees crossed the border, trying to escape the Garlean occupation and they were chased by a contingent of the  XIVth legion, complete with magitek armor and weaponry.

Until now, all his memories of the place he grew up in, his real family, were hazy and vague at best.  The passing of time had not been kind. Of course it did not help that he had only been a small boy when he last saw them.

Now everything was clear and he was right in the middle of it. There were people everywhere, running and screaming. Children were crying, carried by their parents.

His family had just finished preparing a meal, when the group of refugees ran over their encampment.  There’d been so much chaos.

The hair in Zetsu’to’s neck rose to attention and he bared his fangs as he witnessed and felt all he felt that day. He saw himself sitting near the campfire, crying and calling out for his mother.  He was so small back then.

She was there, reaching for him and taking him up in her arms as she ran, trying to find a safe place.   His older sister was there with them, bow in hand. He felt safe at that time. Mama was there, sister was there, until they weren’t.

He did not understand back then. There was gunfire coming from behind. He smelled the smoke, smelled burning flesh. His sister had turned around, letting her arrows fly as quickly and true as she could.  And then he saw heard an agonized scream.

His mother turned around and they both watched his sister fall. Men in black iron shooting at her and cutting her down, all to make certain she was dead.

Then his mother screamed and she continued to run, until she could run no more. All he knew was that he ended up on the ground, with his mother’s body on top of him. She did not move, she did not speak.

All the noises eventually died.

And he was still stuck underneath mama, afraid to move. At first he was quiet, clawing at his mother’s clothes. But when she did not respond to him he started crying. He was hungry and thirsty and cold.

How much time passed he did not know.

The only thing he knew for certain that at some point his cries were heard. His mother was pushed off of him and two big strong arms lifted him up, wrapped a blanket around him and he was taken away.

The vision, the memory, faded.

Zetsu’to gasped for breath. His head was spinning and he knew for certain if he tried to stand he would just fall over.

A hand on his shoulder steadied him, grounded him. When he looked up he found Ishild standing next to him with a concerned look on her face. Judging from her expression she too had seen the vision.

She squeezed his shoulder. “We’re home” she told him. “And this time we’ll take it back.”

Zetsu’to placed a hand upon hers and squeezed it gently. She was right. They took a long and winding road, but they were here. His free hand dug into the earth, grabbing fistful of dirt, clutching it and holding onto it for a long while, before scattering the soil to the wind.

He rose to his feet and turned to look at the woman next to him, reaching for the tome at his side. “Let’s get going. We’ve got our work cut out for us.”


End file.
